GIRLFRIENDS

NINA YUEN

SABINA MARIA VAN DER LINDEN

“They have that “impossible” look. Purple Haze. They were in and out of focus at the same time. The rear-screen-projection look. They were over-determined. Psychologically hyped up. Artificially defined. Japanese fake. Times Square cut-up”RICHARD PRINCE 1*)

A MINIMALISTIC

IMPROVISATION-SYSTEM

A TECHNIQUE TO CREATE A DIALOG OR A SCENE

MINIMAL, REDUCTIVE, BORING, MONOTONOUS are descriptions of minimalism. They could be descriptions of Sabina’s improvisation-system too. AD REINHARDT said: “Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything”. An improvisation-system is an idea to avoid needing ideas – a couple of rules, replacing a scenario. DONALD JUDD: “That gets rid of the problem of illusionism, … which is riddance of one of the salient and most objectionable relics of European art”.

How to create a MORE THAN CASUAL, INTERESTING, HIGHLY CONDENSED CONVERSATION? IMPROVISED and ARTIFICIAL at the same time? NINA YUEN and SABINA MARIA VAN DER LINDEN meet regularly for a limited amount of time. Same place, same time/light-conditions, same looks. Sabina begins with saying or doing something, then Nina reacts to that, then Sabina again, Nina, Sabina, etc. They each operate the camera when its their turn. The main point in this technique is only responding once you have formulated your answer or decided what you will do. This may take a few minutes, hours or longer. In GIRLFRIENDS, Nina and Sabina use a lot of quotes as a method to generate dialog. Also they start new conversation-strings by repeating sentences and actions from problematic previously recorded parts, and continue with different responses: repetition transforms a mistake into a pattern – according to THELONIOUS MONK. It gives the conversation more cohesion and a theme.

SUNDAY MORNING remakes

GIRLFRIENDS *1) *2)

SCARS

SABINA: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 hahahaha (laughing) NINA: …………………………ngchchch (grinning) SABINA: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 times bitten …. eeeeh …. by an ET NINA: this is my fantasyscar. i got it when i was daydreaming on my bicycle and i rode my bike into a barbed wire SABINA: eeeeh… this is the …fantasy…scar. this is from me, biking …… over a … a piece of… land … and … i was just … driving my bike with my head in the clouds … and … being … be … haha … hing mit … wi … being somewhere else with my thoughts … and riding int theeeehm NINA: poison ivy SABINA: think before you speak *3) NINA: bearclaw when you go biking in the country, this time – uh – be careful, keep your eyes on the road, because if you stop paying attention, there’s barbed wire around the corner from you … SABINA: …t – hhhh… barbed wire, riding directly … hhhh … into the barbed wire NINA: there’s a … barbed wire right behind you SABINA: like once i was bike … biking on the road, i was tired, i fell asleep on my bike… i fell asleep on my bike… can you imagine? biking and falling asleep at the same time? NINA: this summer when you go biking in the country, don’t … uuuh start daydreaming and thinking of other things, keep your eyes on the road because SABINA: hhhh … NINA: there’s a …

HYSTERIA

NINA: i’m sorry if my fertility has caused you to feel bad about yourself in any way i mean it’s not like you have to compare yourself with me like you’re less of a woman *4) SABINA: more is less – more or less *5) i’ve long been breathing this level of tactical misrepresentation *6) it’s something that i relate to very easily, it comes naturally to me *7) …..(sigh)….. NINA: i’m sorry…..i’m sorry if my fertility has caused you to feel bad about yourself in any way. i mean, it’s not like you have to compare yourself with me, like you’re less of a woman….. *4) MUSIC cellphone SABINA: (laughing)

CLEANING

VITAL SIGNS

NINA: every woman i see reminds me of my dead friend SABINA: dead friend? elegant, edgy, emotional vision 200% 21st century i feel sort of hollow behind the eyes NINA: i was clumsy, cold, bored, blind looking this way makes it better, looking this way makes it worse SABINA: oh, really? MUSIC SABINA: wow wow wow DANCE NINA: you have, i know, gone long and far, but you remain unchanged, because the dead are changeless *8) SABINA: are you saying i’m dead? NINA: well, let’s not jump to conclusions …….. a zombie is a mythical creature that appears as a reanimated corpse SABINA: are you saying i’m dead? NINA: obviously you’re not really dead. dead people don’t talk *9) …….. you have, i know, gone long and far, but, you remain unchanged, because the dead are changeless *8) ……….. a zombie is a monster with a hunger for human brains and flesh SABINA: i’ll swallow your soul, i’ll swallow your soul *10) NINA: hhhh…hhhh…hhhh…hhhh…hhhh……………. SABINA: i don’t know what’s happening to me, i’m not alive, i’m not dead, i’m just so … lonely *11) MUSIC NINA: your nails are groing your skin is warm your belly moves when you breathe your heart makes a sound your hair is growing you have a pulse there’s air coming out of your nose your eyes are wet FIRST AID NINA: when i die i would like my body and everything i own to be burned at a very hot heat, so that all of my ashes and the ashes of the things i own turn white. then i would like to have a statue of me with my eyes closed, laying on the ground and my ashes scattered over it.

SOCIAL ANOREXIA

SABINA: perhaps … perhaps we weren’t properly introduced before. my name is SABINA, but you can call me bitch behind my back *12) NINA: hey, i’m NINA, but i play jenny. now open up and tell me your lovestory, bitch *13) SABINA: if we hang out, i want to be somewhere familiar, i want to know where the exits are and i want to be allowed to smoke 14*) NINA: the door is right there and i’ve left it open. but i want you to stay here and relax. i want you to feel like you can tell me anything SABINA: oh no, no, no, no. i prefer to contain myself within my own insatiable desire *15) NINA: i know that your surface- frigidity is a defense against your intensity. that’s why i call you the ice queen *16) SABINA: maybe i’m born with it NINA: maybe not …….. i’m sorry … i’m sorry if my fertility has caused you to feel bad about yourself in any way. i mean it’s not like you have to compare yourself with me like you’re less of a woman *4) MUSIC cellphone SABINA: … muh … all in a suburb near you *17) NINA: …. oh no, no, no, no. i prefer to contain myself within my own insatiable desire *15) SABINA: i know your surface-frigidity is a defense against your intensity. that’s why i call you the ice queen *16)

ARTWORLD

NINA+SABINA : you think you know, but you have no idea! you think you know, but you have no idea! you think you know, but you have no idea! you think you know, but you have no idea! you think you know, but you have no idea! SABINA: you work in the artworld and you consider yourself as the aristocracy of terminological inexactitude *18) *6) open the windows in your chest and let the spirits fly in and out *19) NINA: you think you know, but you have no idea! SABINA: i have the look of a classic and enough room for a laptop which makes me very “modern woman” *20) NINA: you have a tiny nose, like the nose of a child. i like your bottom-teeth and how you can see the silver when you talk. i like your little socks … an’ i like the little lines that your sock makes in your ankles. tiny red dot on your chin – tiny red dot on your breastbone. i like your nails, they’re big like shells. i like the tiny bit of white at the tip. the o in the centre of your finger, just where the jewel of a ring would go SABINA: (snap) disappears

HERMETIC DECORATION

.

NOTES

*1) “The GIRLFRIENDS were portraits. They were pictures of the way I wished I could be. Maybe it’s a kind of stupid desire”